Tag Archives: design

Teeny Haunts: Sand Pit Lady

There is something about this myth that unnerves me. I think it’s the sound of the woman digging in the sand. I can imagine the quiet of the park. Realizing that you’re all alone. And then the crunch of the sand. First the footsteps and then her fingers, clawing through it. Creepy.

This legend traces back to the north of Kyushu, Japan, during the early 1980s. Accounts began to spread across the internet in the early 2010s.

Some Japanese accounts mention maru and eksu (two symbols used to grade a yes/no test). The symbol O shows a correct answer (maru) and the symbol X shows an incorrect answer (eksu). Early posts say that if you go to the maru side of the woman, you will survive, while if you go to the eksu side, you may perish.

In another account, the Sandpit Woman stands and starts walking. You instinctively follow her, but here you have a choice. If you pass the woman, she will chase you in a lap around the park. Don’t look back at her, whatever you do. If you finish the lap, you are free.

If not, then you are buried alive.

Something to ponder the next time you sit for a spell at a park. If you find yourself alone, get up and leave.

Tim Kane

Teeny Haunts: Snail Hail

Although I’ve known about how storms can pick up critters and deposit them, rain style, across various swaths of landscape, I stumbled across this particular story in the 400th issue of Fortean Magazine. I was struck by the oddness of the account.

Most scientists attribute critters raining from the sky to tornado waterspouts. High winds create a tornado-like suction that picks up fish or frogs or even snails and carries them for miles. The Farmer’s Almanac lists the most bizarre items to have rained down on humanity including meat in Kentucky and spiders in Australia.

In the case of the snail encounter, the witness claims that when he exited the phone booth, the snails formed perfect circle. As if the rain were concentrated exactly on his locale.

Of course the best story about raining animals comes from Stephen King’s Rainy Season (a short story from Nightmares and Dreamscapes). In this, a couple move to a small town only to find that every seven years it rains frogs. However these amphibians have a taste for flesh.

There have been three short films made of this story (2002, 2017 and an Australian short in 2019). The story reads the best.

I have never personally experienced any strange fauna falling from the skies. However, I do know that the creepiness of the event would long linger in my memory.

Tim Kane